Rising discontent

Friday

Apr 16, 2010 at 7:17 AMApr 16, 2010 at 7:28 AM

The Orange County Register

This year, Tax Day was different. This year, April 15 came in the middle of the biggest tax revolt in three decades. Back then, California's Proposition 13 property-tax limitation, passed by voters in 1978, sparked a nationwide tax revolt.

Now, at least three major April 15/Tax Day protests were held in Orange County alone.

For a national perspective, we talked to Lew Rockwell, president of the Mises Institute in Auburn, Ala., a libertarian think tank, and editor of LewRockwell.com. Along with other Mises scholars, he blames the recession on the boom/ bust cycle caused by the Federal Reserve Board printing too much money, which, in turn, has caused a falling standard of living that will be made worse because the government "intends to raise taxes much more."

As a result, he added, "Grass-roots Americans have had it: with property taxes, state taxes, federal taxes, the whole rotten kit and caboodle. And since taxes equal wealth destruction it's about time."

Indeed, according to the Wall Street Journal on March 17, President Barack Obama's budget proposals "would lift the top capital-gains rate to 22.9 percent as the regular rate bounces back to 20 percent from 15 percent when the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year. The top rate for dividends would rise to 42.5 percent … . The White House plan also raises the ordinary Medicare payroll tax by 0.9 percentage points for the same filers, bringing it to 3.8 percent."

At the state level, California continues to suffer under the record $13 billion tax increase Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law in February 2009. That package of increases expires next year. But nobody knows what may be done this year by the governor and the Legislature — or in 2011 by a new governor and Legislature — to close the continuing budget deficit of $20 billion. Even more tax increases are possible.

All these tax increases mean less money for people and businesses to spend on essentials such as rent and food; and to invest in new business and jobs creation. Fewer businesses and jobs means higher unemployment levels and government spending on the unemployed.

Moreover, the tax increases and protests come as Americans become more aware of how, while common taxpayers are forced to sharply cut back their living standards, government workers aren't feeling much of a pinch. As CBS News reported last May, "There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year" — an amount almost double the private-sector average of $39,751.

To that, taxpayers across Orange County, California and America are finally saying: Enough is enough.